Analysis of aberrant somatic hypermutation (SHM) in non‐Hodgkin's lymphomas of patients with chronic HCV infection

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Abstract
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and aberrant somatic hypermutation (SHM) have each been suggested to contribute to the development of B‐cell non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). The incidence of PIM‐1, PAX‐5, RhoH/TTF, and c‐MYC mutations in tumour biopsy specimens from 32 HCV‐infected B‐cell NHL patients was analysed to determine whether the extent of aberrant SHM among these patients differed from that previously reported for HCV‐negative B‐cell NHL patients. Mutation of PIM‐1, PAX‐5, RhoH/TTF, and c‐MYC was detected in 4 (13%), 5 (16%), 4 (13%), and 4 (13%) of 32 samples, respectively. In HCV‐positive B‐cell NHL patients, the frequency of aberrant SHM was lower than that already found in HCV‐negative B‐cell NHL patients. This indicates that, unlike B‐cell lymphomas from HCV‐negative patients, aberrant SHM may not contribute significantly to malignant transformation in HCV‐associated B‐cell lymphomas. Copyright © 2005 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.